I want to wish everyone who reads this a very Merry Christmas. It is Christmas night here in Germany, and I am about to hed off for bed, but wanted to post a message real quick. My Christmas was uneventful. Christmas Eve I went to chapel, then to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader afterwards. The other 5/6 of my family happened to be watching the same movie on the other side of the ocean at the exact same time, so I thought that was kind of cool. I then watched It's a Wonderful life, a family tradition every Christmas Eve. I searched for 3 or 4 hours earlier this week to find a copy and was saved by one of my high school club kids who let me borrow a copy. It seems little, but being able to keep that tradition even though I am thousands of miles from my family made a hue difference for me. I then woke and made my families usual Christmas brunch of scrambled eggs, bacon, and instead of stick buns (which I don't know how to make) I bought some monkey bred. Another one of those little things that goes a long way. I then spent the day relaxing, resting, and packing for the trip coming up.
We leave tomorrow morning, way to early for Winter Blitz. I will be getting there around 530 to the chapel to get things prepared to head to Austria. We will be there for 5 days of skiing/snowboarding/sledding. sightseeing and lots of fellowship time and hearing from a speaker about God. This is a tremendous ministry opportunity and I cherish prayers for the students who are going. We have a lot of unbelievers going and it is a great chance for the to learn more.
I will poat an update when I return, hopefully with some great stories to share. MerryChristmas again, and I hope your holidays are a joyful and relaxing time spent w/ family and friends, and remembering the greatest gift the world has ever received. God Bless.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
I'm back
I didn't realize it had been so long since I wrote. Sorry about that. I guess I have a lot to fill people in on. Sooooo, ummmmm. Yeah. Life has been good. Let's see, a few days ago I went to Munich. It was really cool. I went with Storey and Laura, two Club workers from nearby Hohenfels and Bamberg, and Philip, a friend of Storey's. Munich is a really cool city. It's big, so obviously I didn't see that much of it in one day, but what I saw I liked. There was a big Christmas market, which is a German tradition during the holidays. They set up booths and sell all sorts of different things, and lots of food. My goal when I go to one is to just eat my way around the market. German food agrees with me. Brats are obviously delicious. And I love schnitzel. I could eat it all day.
Yesterday we had a middle school bowling day, set up by MWR (Morale welfare and recreation). Good outing. I bowled a 118 bowling granny style. Not too shabby. Oh yea, it was a good day with the students as well.
My life right now is geared toward Winter Blitz, our camp and ski trip coming up in a few days. I am extremely excited to go, and not just because it will mean I am done preparing for it. We have 26 students going from our community, and we will meet about 300 more from around Europe. Prayers are greatly appreciated as we go: please pray for safety with traveling, skiing, snowboarding and sledding, relationship building between the staff and the students, and most importantly for the students relationships with God. A lot of them do not have any relationship with Him yet and will be hearing the gospel for possibly the first time. This is a fantastic ministry opportunity with the potential to change lives. Please pray for our speaker and the leaders during small group discussion time that God will give us the words to say.
As an added bonus to paperwork preparing for this trip, my car has decided to break down. Add that to the long list of other things that have broken on me in the last month and it's getting a tad ridiculous. German stuff just doesn't like me. Except Schnitzel.
Yesterday we had a middle school bowling day, set up by MWR (Morale welfare and recreation). Good outing. I bowled a 118 bowling granny style. Not too shabby. Oh yea, it was a good day with the students as well.
My life right now is geared toward Winter Blitz, our camp and ski trip coming up in a few days. I am extremely excited to go, and not just because it will mean I am done preparing for it. We have 26 students going from our community, and we will meet about 300 more from around Europe. Prayers are greatly appreciated as we go: please pray for safety with traveling, skiing, snowboarding and sledding, relationship building between the staff and the students, and most importantly for the students relationships with God. A lot of them do not have any relationship with Him yet and will be hearing the gospel for possibly the first time. This is a fantastic ministry opportunity with the potential to change lives. Please pray for our speaker and the leaders during small group discussion time that God will give us the words to say.
As an added bonus to paperwork preparing for this trip, my car has decided to break down. Add that to the long list of other things that have broken on me in the last month and it's getting a tad ridiculous. German stuff just doesn't like me. Except Schnitzel.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
More snow and locked doors
So today did not start off real great for me. First, I have a few more items to add to the not working for me list, which are christmas lights and my windshield wiper. Now the windshield wiper isn't exactly technology, but 2 days ago when I was brushing the snow off my windshield I bumped the wiper on the drivers side and it cracked in half. Bummer. I went and got a new one today, just in time, because it is snowing again. It has probably snowed a couple inches in the last 2 hours. So not a blizzard or anything, but it is steadily coming down.
Well, back to this morning. One thing that I find annoying about German houses (but other people have said they like them) is the front doors do not have a door handle per se. There is a knob thing, but to open them you always have to use the key. I have just been waiting to lock myself out of the house, and today was the day I finally did it. As soon as I shut the door I realized my keys were inside. Now, I have two spare keys, but they are in the hands of one of my chaplains, who is storing stuff at my house and was in meetings when I tried to call him, and I thought the other was being held by Aretta, who is in the US right now (I have since remembered she gave it back to me and I wisely have it on the counter in my house. dumb, I know.) So that meant I was stuck. My car keys are obviously attached the the key chain with my house keys, so I couldn't go anywhere. And as i mentioned before it has been snowing a decent amount here, and while it's not terribly cold, it is probably in the high 20's, which is cold enough to be annoying when you are locked out. I tried breaking into my house briefly, but couldn't really see a way. So I tried to get ahold of the chaplain again, but to no avail. Feeling somewhat frustrated but laughing at myself for getting stuck in a situation i saw coming yet did nothing to prevent, I tried my hand at breaking in again. I went down to the door that leads into my basement (it is on the side of the house, down a flight of stairs) and being somewhat perturbed, I just rammed it with my shoulder. To be honest, I had very little hope of this working, but to my pleasure and surprise, on the second thud the door flew open.
Now, obviously I was pleased to be able to get my keys (after i broke into the locked door from my basement to the main floor, but that just took a little jiggling of the handle to unlock), but this leads to a serious question about my house security. the basement door is deadbolted, but obviously not very well. Anybody could break in. Ok, maybe not anybody, but those able to generate a certain amount of force could do so. I need to solve this safety issue. Hmmm.
On a campletely unrelated nore I just hit my shin on the desk, surprisingly hard for being seated. So on that note of pain, I say good bye for today.
Well, back to this morning. One thing that I find annoying about German houses (but other people have said they like them) is the front doors do not have a door handle per se. There is a knob thing, but to open them you always have to use the key. I have just been waiting to lock myself out of the house, and today was the day I finally did it. As soon as I shut the door I realized my keys were inside. Now, I have two spare keys, but they are in the hands of one of my chaplains, who is storing stuff at my house and was in meetings when I tried to call him, and I thought the other was being held by Aretta, who is in the US right now (I have since remembered she gave it back to me and I wisely have it on the counter in my house. dumb, I know.) So that meant I was stuck. My car keys are obviously attached the the key chain with my house keys, so I couldn't go anywhere. And as i mentioned before it has been snowing a decent amount here, and while it's not terribly cold, it is probably in the high 20's, which is cold enough to be annoying when you are locked out. I tried breaking into my house briefly, but couldn't really see a way. So I tried to get ahold of the chaplain again, but to no avail. Feeling somewhat frustrated but laughing at myself for getting stuck in a situation i saw coming yet did nothing to prevent, I tried my hand at breaking in again. I went down to the door that leads into my basement (it is on the side of the house, down a flight of stairs) and being somewhat perturbed, I just rammed it with my shoulder. To be honest, I had very little hope of this working, but to my pleasure and surprise, on the second thud the door flew open.
Now, obviously I was pleased to be able to get my keys (after i broke into the locked door from my basement to the main floor, but that just took a little jiggling of the handle to unlock), but this leads to a serious question about my house security. the basement door is deadbolted, but obviously not very well. Anybody could break in. Ok, maybe not anybody, but those able to generate a certain amount of force could do so. I need to solve this safety issue. Hmmm.
On a campletely unrelated nore I just hit my shin on the desk, surprisingly hard for being seated. So on that note of pain, I say good bye for today.
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